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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoRasmus Flindt Pedersen | PolfotoIn what the Copenhagen Zoo calls a valuable lesson in anatomy, children watch as a healthy male giraffe is dissected after it was killed because of fears of inbreeding.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Saying it needed to prevent inbreeding, the Copenhagen Zoo killed a
2-year-old giraffe and fed its remains to lions as visitors watched, ignoring a petition signed by
thousands and offers to save the animal.

Marius, a healthy male, was killed yesterday with a bolt pistol, said zoo spokesman Tobias
Stenbaek Bro. Visitors, including children, were invited to watch while the giraffe was then
skinned and fed to the lions.

Marius’ plight triggered a wave of online protests and renewed debate about the conditions of
zoo animals.

But the public feeding of Marius’ remains to the lions was popular at the Copenhagen Zoo.
Stenbaek Bro said it allowed parents to decide whether their children should watch what the zoo
regards as an important display of scientific knowledge about animals.

“I’m actually proud because I think we have given children a huge understanding of the anatomy
of a giraffe that they wouldn’t have had from watching a giraffe in a photo,” Stenbaek Bro
said.

He said the zoo, which now has seven giraffes, followed the recommendation of the European
Association of Zoos and Aquaria to put down Marius because there already were a lot of giraffes
with similar genes in the organization’s breeding program.

The Amsterdam-based EAZA has 347 members, including many large zoos in European capitals, and
works to conserve global biodiversity and achieve the highest standards of care and breeding for
animals.

Stenbaek Bro said his zoo had turned down offers from other ones to take Marius, as well as an
offer from a private individual who wanted to buy the giraffe for 500,000 euros ($680,000).

Stenbaek Bro said a significant part of EAZA membership is that the zoos don’t own the animals
themselves, but govern them, and therefore can’t sell them to anyone outside the organization that
doesn’t follow the same set of rules.

Bengt Holst, the Copenhagen Zoo’s scientific director, said it turned down an offer from
Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Britain, which is a member of EAZA, because Marius’ older brother lives
there and the park’s space could be better used by a “genetically more valuable giraffe.”

The Copenhagen Zoo turned down an offer from a zoo in northern Sweden because it is not an EAZA
member and didn’t want to comply with the same high standards, Holst said.

The Copenhagen Zoo doesn’t give giraffes contraceptives or castrate them because that could have
unwanted side effects on their internal organs, and the zoo regards parental care as important,
Holst said.

The EAZA said it supported the zoo’s decision.

However, the organization Animal Rights Sweden said the case highlights what it believes zoos do
to animals regularly.

“It is no secret that animals are killed when there is no longer space, or if the animals don’t
have genes that are interesting enough,” it said in a statement. “The only way to stop this is to
not visit zoos.”